Tuesday June 21st is the Summer Solstice – the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. We know that our friends Down Under will be happy to get through their Winter Solstice on the same day!
It is hard to believe that June 21st is the first official day of Summer, and even harder to explain to our daughter who is turning 9 in a week. (Can you believe it?! – Nine years old!) School gets out in late May here, and starts up August 15th which personally I think is a crime. At least this year the school system finally had the great wisdom to have the high schools start at 8 am instead of 7 or 7:30 am. Teenagers catching the bus at 6:20 am? What were they thinking? Anyway, I digress….
I am actually writing this in the Los Angeles airport on a layover coming home from Hawaii. This year it was just Sophie and I…we tried to do all the "girlie" things that the boys never want to do. We went to Queen Emma's Summer Palace, the Botanical Gardens, and walked through about 25 art galleries in the last week. In particular I really enjoyed seeing the historic handmade Hawaiian applique quilts in the Summer Palace museum. We took the tour and learned about Emma's friendship with Queen Victoria of England, and the sad story of how Emma lost her young son, and then her husband.
Of course I always have my eye open for any quilts that I encounter in my travels. I snapped photos on my iPhone and posted on Facebook in some cases – like the Hawaiian quilt with several big blocks (all different) at the entrance of the Maui Ocean Center.
We went to a luau on our last night there, and I just spent the whole time enjoying all the fabric designs! Literally everyone who came to the luau had on a printed tropical fabric, and the variety was astonishing. Young and old, large families in matching flower prints, newlyweds in skimpy dresses and Midwest tourists in XL Aloha shirts…. it was all there. Toward the end they sang the classic Hawaiian wedding song and all the newlyweds, about-to-be-weds, and those celebrating anniversaries went up front to have a special couples dance. Very sweet.
Two of our suppliers specialize in Hawaiian and tropical designs – Kona Bay and Trans-Pacific Fabrics. (They also specialize in Asian theme fabrics) In case you didn't notice, we've put our "Island" category on sale this week so you could enjoy a little Hawaiiana while I was traveling.
I'll be at the closing of the Sacred Threads exhibit July 3, at the Long Beach Quilt Festival on Sat July 30, and I'll be giving an award at the Quilt Festival in Birmingham UK on August 11. Hope to see some of you at one of these shows! Aloha!
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Ok, so maybe the next fantastic direction to take quilting is to first observe The Art Car Parade in Houston, Texas … I saw this last night on Larry The Cable Guy. Please don’t toss this idea until you’ve seen last night’s episode. I think the next great quilt could easily be a car produced by the Mexican Jewish Redneck. He turned down an offer for $600,000 for his wooden pickup. I fell in love with him last night & you’ll understand why when the moment arrives. Mexican Jewish Redneck is his self description and it’s apt.
Your comments about Big Bang Theory (in you email) have inspired me to comment. I work at a facility that has over 200 physicists and uncounted engineers. For all the comic exaggeration of this show it is dead-on to the reality of the nerdness, geekdom, and dweebness of the scientists and engineers. Especially the interactions between the two groups and the various scientific disciplines. I am also one week back from a 5 day applique retreat and can attest to the focus and dweebness we all displayed in our pursuit of perfecting our skills! It was a wonderful time together being about to share our love of applique and quilting.
This is a quote from John Green
Because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff. We don’t have to be like, ‘Oh yeah that purse is okay’ or like, ‘Yeah, I like that band’s early stuff.’ Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself-love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what they are saying is, ‘You like stuff’, which is just not a good insult at all, like ‘You are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMweXVWB918
I loved your blog about nerds!!! I am a nerd as well. I used to be an all time champ at Trivial Pursuits. I know more useless information (some very useful) than anybody I know. I would like to add that Benjaman Franklin was also a nerd. I am reading his biography that he wrote to his son. He wanted to be the first person to not commit any of the 7 deadly sins. He actually made a scientific journal of each of his days and some of the sayings he came up with, like “Waste not, want not”. Anyway after about 3 months of charting each of his days and his behaviours, he finally realized that if a person did not commit any of the 7 deadly sins, he would still be sinning by commiting the “Sin of Pride”, because after battling and overcoming all the other sins, a person could not help but be proud of him/herself. Now that’s a DWEEB!!! I love Franklin, he is the only author that actually tells on himself with no inhibitions. And, yes, Luana, I go to sleep, praying and dreaming of all the quilts I could make, if I just had one more fabric line. I’ve got 12 unfinished kits that have been waiting for me for years, and I keep finding something else, right now that I must finish!! This year, I promised myself that I am using this fabulous scrap rail fence to get rid of all my tons of fabric. I’ve devided my pastels and my Autum and jewel tones, and figure I have enough fabrics to make about 7 – 10 quilts!!! I’m going to give most away and keep one for myself. Then I’m going to work on those kits. I have a few with no backings and have picked out beautiful backings on eQuilter in my wish list, so, I’ll still be spending money. And I also got a beautiful book on Applique, so I’m going to be fancing up my borders with batik bird appliques and gorgeous flower appliques. This is a new idea I though up that would use up even more fabric and I’m crazy about applique. Thank you for letting your nerd out of the closet!!! The rest of us can come out and play, too!!
Thank you LuAnn for all the places you take me that I will never get to.